Berlin is a city that cannot be understood in one day

When I was going to Germany, I realized that I wanted to see several cities, but I didn't want to change hotels every day, carry a heavy suitcase up the stairs and turn my vacation into a competition with the navigator. At some point I thought: why not travel through several German cities by train? The idea seemed great right up until the moment I opened the map and started adding cities one by one.

At first, only Berlin, Hamburg and Munich were on my list, then suddenly Cologne, Dresden, Nuremberg appeared, and then I looked at a couple more photos and realized that if I continued like this, I would need not a vacation, but a separate stage in my life. As a result, I chose a route that allowed me to see a completely different Germany: modern Berlin, maritime Hamburg, romantic Cologne, historic Nuremberg, fabulous Munich and a slightly different, more peaceful Dresden.

The main character of the trip was the train. I specifically didn't take a car because I wanted to experience Germany exactly the way a passenger sees it: with train stations, platforms, large windows, a cup of coffee on the way, and the very moment when the train starts moving and you look out the window and realize that the next city is already becoming part of the journey.

The first city on my route was Berlin. And it was a pretty logical choice, because after the road, I wanted to start from a place where there was a sense of scale and energy.

Berlin greeted me exactly as I expected: a little chaotic, a little harsh, and at the same time incredibly interesting. I settled down near the center, left my suitcase and almost immediately went for a walk, because I just don't know how to sit in my room after arriving.

Brandenburg Gate

The Quadriga of the Brandenburg Gate

First of all, I went to the Brandenburg Gate, then I went to the Reichstag building, walked along Unter den Linden and reached the Museum Island. On paper, the route looked pretty compact, but in reality, by the evening I found that I had walked as much as I usually walk in a few days.

The Old National Gallery

I was especially impressed by the sense of history that is literally found here at every turn. Berlin does not try to pretend that it had only a beautiful past, on the contrary, the city fairly honestly shows different periods of its history, and this makes walking through it much deeper.

In the evening, I decided to go to a cafe, but first I stood outside for about ten minutes and tried to figure out where the entrance was. It turned out that the entrance was literally two meters away from me, I was just looking completely the wrong way. In general, the first day of the trip immediately reminded me: German organization is great, but it does not guarantee the organization of the tourist at all.